


Insula de Absentis Spiritus

by JeanieLee



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Action/Adventure, Drama, F/M, Family, Gen, Harry Potter Next Generation, Mild Language, Mystery, Next Generation, Next-Gen, Post - Deathly Hallows, Post-Hogwarts
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-10
Updated: 2013-12-10
Packaged: 2018-01-04 06:10:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 16,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1077547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JeanieLee/pseuds/JeanieLee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A family vacation, just Lily, her brothers, and all her cousins sounded like a great idea. Three weeks and countless countries to visit. But when visiting a small seaside town in Denmark, they stumble across a sinister plan centuries in the making, with Lily and her brothers pulled right into the center of it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I am back with yet another story. It was a plot bunny that would not leave me alone until I at least started writing it. And it’s my first next gen! Never thought I would write one but here I am! Now this story was actually inspired a lot by the Danish film Island of Lost Souls which I recommend watching if you can find one with subtitles and the score is very reminiscent of John Williams. Anyway, onto the prologue and I hope you guys enjoy it! Oh, and here is a cast list of those in the follow prologue. I’ll do this for every chapter since these are the people that I have in my head when writing. 
> 
> Aron Stover -- Jensen Ackles  
> Espen Holden -- Eric Bana  
> Kara Yager -- Rachel Weisz  
> Soren Bigsby -- Sean Bean

_We’ve got him._  
  
That’s all that the note he had received an hour ago had said, but he recognized the handwriting very well since he had seen it many times before. Which was why Aron was now hurrying across the city, at night in the cold rain towards the empty storehouse on the outskirts that served as the Legion headquarters. Not that anyone actually knew what the Legion was. Only those that were in it knew what it was and they had all been born into it. His parents had been a part of it, he was a part of it, and if he ever married and had children he was sure that they would be part of it too. And Aron already had someone in mind that he would love to have children with, who incidentally would also be at this meeting.   
  
He ran out from under the eve of the bakery and ran across the cobblestone street, not bothering to try and cover his head to protect it from the rain. He had to get to headquarters. After all these years, they finally had him. Lightning streaked across the sky as he crossed the street, lighting up the storehouse that he was running towards. Once he was under the eve that covered the bolted front door, he knocked on the door before running a hand through his hair, shaking off the excess water. He dropped his hand to his side as he heard the small peep hole being unlocked before a familiar face was peering out towards him. Aron inclined his head slightly and the face disappeared from the hole and the door to it closed before the door itself was unlocked and opened for Aron to enter.  
  
“How did you find him, Espen?” Aron asked as the other man closed and locked the door before coming to walk alongside Aron.   
  
“He wasn’t covering his tracks nearly as well as he should have been,” Espen replied as the two men walked quickly up the small, wooden staircase in the storehouse. “Found him holed up just outside of Hillerød,” Espen added a few moments later as the two men walked through a pair of open double doors and into a large room on the second floor. Men were milling around the room, muttering to themselves and looking at something at the far end of the room.   
  
As they moved further into the room, Aron was able to see what they were looking at, or rather who they were looking at. Chained up before the large window and unconscious was Soren Bigsby, a necromancer that they had been after for years. His head hang down onto his chest and his long hair concealed his face from them. “They gave him enough sedatives for twelve men.”  
  
Aron looked over at Espen beside him. “And that is enough?”  
  
Espen nodded and opened his mouth to speak but stopped as light footsteps echoed through the room. The two men turned and Aron found himself smiling towards the only woman in the Legion, who walked through the crowd of men with ease, her head held high and a large, worn book in her arms. She caught Aron’s eye as she passed where he and Espen stood and the corners of her mouth twitched upward.  
  
All the men in the room watched Kara stepped up to a wooden podium that was set up before where Soren was chained up, setting the book down upon it. She looked towards Soren, her expression blank as she looked at the unconscious man. Unknown to all in the room, Soren’s eyes twitched and flickered open.  
  
“We are all in agreement that this man has committed crimes against humanity,” Kara began, her voice level as she spoke. Aron stood watching her, unable to keep down the small smile on his face. “For these crimes and to protect the all those that are not in this room and remain blissfully ignorant of the dark forces at large, the council has called for your death.”  
  
Kara then looked down and opened the large book that she had brought in, her eyes taking in the ancient handwriting upon its pages. She turned to the page she needed and rested her hands upon the book as she read the writing, the foreign words echoing through the room. The men in the room all watched as the pages before her began to glow, bathing her face in pure white light. She closed her eyes a small breeze blew through the room and the light disappeared. For a moment, she simply stood there before opening her eyes, her gaze fixed on Soren. She then moved around the podium and towards Soren, planning on completing the execution order.  
  
But when she was a foot away from Soren, he quickly lifted his head, showing them all that he was awake. He stood up as many of the men moved forward to help Kara, Aron included as he watched in horror as his right hand was set upon Kara’s head, but Soren stopped them by lifting his left hand and a strong wind knocked them all off their feet and the podium over. They tried to get up again to help but found themselves stuck on the ground, unable to stop Soren as from his hand white ribbons of energy wrapped around Kara’s head and she began to scream in pain, pain so severe she fell to her knees before Soren.  
  
“KARA!” Aron yelled from his position on the ground, staring at the scene in horror. Soren was slowly killing her. Aron looking around the room desperately. There had to be something that he could do. He spotted the book on the ground not far from him and crawled over to where it lay, his heart pounding in his chest as Kara continued to scream. He turned to the page that she had been on at the podium and began to read, his voice barely heard over Kara’s screams and the wind that blew through the room and kept them all on the ground. The pages began to glow as he spoke and Aron yelled as he suddenly found himself in agonizing pain.  
  
As he collapsed to the ground beside the book, his last hope of helping Kara fading, he heard Soren laughing at him. With his hand still on Kara’s head, who was still screaming in pain, Soren looked towards Aron. “Foolish Aron. You are not strong enough to use the Book. You will be the next to die.”  
  
In that moment, something changed in Kara and Soren noticed this. All the men in the room watched as Kara struggled against the pain of the spell to lift her arms, her hands faintly glowing with golden light. Soren saw this and shook his head. “No,” he muttered and the blue energy around Kara’s head flared brighter. Her screams turned into a yell and she forced her arms forward and Soren was struck by a ball of golden light that pushed him away from her and right out the window behind him. The wind in the room disappeared and all that was heard was the sounds of the storm outside. Aron, still in pain and panting as if he had just run several miles, pushed himself up to his feet just in time to see Kara drop her arms down to her side.  
  
“Kara,” he breathed out in relief as he began to walk towards her. She collapsed to the ground, deathly still. Aron shook his head as he hurried towards her. “No, no, no,” he muttered as he dropped to his knees beside her. He took her shoulders and pulled her into his lap. He reached up with one hand and caressed her cheek. “Kara?”  
  
No answer. Aron shook his head as he was overcome with grief, pressing his face into her hair as he sobbed. She was gone.


	2. James Does Something Stupid

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now this chapter doesn’t have much action, but that will start in the next chapter. 
> 
> Lily Potter -- Georgie Henley  
> James Potter II -- Skandar Keynes  
> Albus Potter -- Logan Lerman
> 
> Rose Weasley -- Emma Stone  
> Hugo Weasley -- Will Poulter
> 
> Fred Weasley -- Roshon Fegan  
> Roxanne Weasley -- Katerina Graham
> 
> Molly Weasley -- Karen Gillan  
> Lucy Weasley -- Ellen Page
> 
> Victoire Weasley -- Amanda Seyfried  
> Dominique Weasley -- Saoirse Ronan  
> Louis Weasley -- William Moseley

“Remind me why we had to take a plane again?”

Rose turned around as she walked to face who had spoken behind her. “This is a Muggle style vacation, Hugo. Might as well do it right.”

“You never wondered why we got Muggle Passports?” Albus asked as the group walked through the airport in Kolind, Denmark. People saw the size of their party and quickly moved out of the way. Warm morning sunlight filtered in through the large windows, outside of which the rolling hills of green were visible. 

Hugo looked thoughtful for a moment before shaking his head. “No.”

Fourteen year old Lily Potter groaned and slapped her hand against her forehead as the group walked. “I once again have to wonder how he passed any classes at all this past year.”

“Simple,” Hugo began, moving back to where Lily waked behind him and slinging an arm around her shoulders. “I had you helping me.”

Where he walked beside them, Albus coughed. Hugo looked past Lily and over at the middle Potter sibling. “What?”

Albus cocked an eyebrow at his younger cousin. “Lily wasn’t the only one that helped you this past year.”

Hugo looked confused for a moment before he seemed to realize what Albus was talking about. “Oh right!” Hugo said enthusiastically. Albus began to grin. “Thanks for the help sis!”

The grin that had been on Albus’s face for a few seconds fell. James slapped his younger brother on the back while laughing.

*****

 

A minibus drove the group of ten the ninety-two kilometers to their hotel in Elsegårde Strand, where they would be staying for two days before moving on to Germany. For a group that was typically able to travel anywhere they wished within a few moments, the almost two hour drive was brutal. Lily sat in the very back seat beside her brothers, leaning against the window as she watched the lush green landscape fly by them. Sure she had been out of Britain before, going on various vacations with her family (most of the time for a good Quidditch game), but on this trip she was going to see many places that she had not been to yet, Denmark being one of them.

Elsegårde Strand was a small beach town where they could simply spend their days relaxing on the beach, shopping, and just enjoying themselves as a family. And the only rule of the vacation; no magic whatsoever. Sure they all had their wands on them just in case, and the rule didn’t really matter to those of them that were under the age of seventeen, but for those that were of age and could use their wands whenever they wanted, the rule was tough. 

“Wow,” Lily muttered as the minibus drove up to the hotel late that afternoon. The hotel was a three story beach house, white with pale blue trim. The surrounding property was landscaped with an abundance of colorful flowers.

“Okay, which one of you booked this place?” Fred asked from where he sat in the second row of seats between Roxanne and Hugo. 

Victoire, who sat in the passenger’s seat, turned around to face the back as the bus stopped in front of the hotel. “That would be me.”

“Very nice choice,” James commented as the driver got out of the bus and walked around to open the doors for them. The group exited the bus as quickly as possible, eager to see more of the hotel that stood before them. After grabbing their bags from the back of the bus, the group made their way up the path to the front steps of the hotel. The French doors were open and through them they could see the lobby.

The room wasn’t that large, but it made up for space in the way it was decorated. To the right was the welcome desk with two women behind it while to the left was a set of stairs that led up to the second floor of the hotel. The walls were pale yellow and the floor a light cherry wood. In the center of the room was a sitting area, comprised of white clothe furniture with pale yellow trim. Another set of French doors were open directly across from the ones they had just stepped through, leading out to a large pool.

“Vic,” Molly began as the group walked across the wraparound porch and through the open French doors. “If we ever do a trip like this again, you are choosing all the hotels.”

Victoire laughed, waving her hand through the air. “Not a problem,” she replied as she walked over to the welcome desk and smiled towards the woman as she set her suitcase down beside her.”Hi. Two joint rooms under the name Weasley, Victoire.”

The woman nodded and typed something into one of the computers at the desk. “Ah yes. Two joint suites reserved two months ago and paid for last month,” the woman confirmed, her Danish accent very light. She looked up from the computer and smiled towards Victoire and the group standing just behind her. “I’ll just need to see some identification before I get your room keys.”

From one of the pockets of the jacket she wore, Victoire pulled her passport and handed it to the woman. She looked between the card and Victoire for a moment before handing it back with a smile. “Perfect. I’ll get your room keys and someone to show you to your rooms.”

*****

 

“Oh wow!” Lucy exclaimed as the girls were shown to their suite attached to the boys. The main living area was done in the same color scheme as the lobby and continued a small kitchenette and a large, comfy looking sofa facing the flat screen television on the wall. On the far side of the room, double doors led out to a balcony. To the right was a short hallway, down which were the two bedrooms, one containing a king sized bed and the other two bunk beds while to the right was the door that led to the boys room next door.

It had been decided ahead of time that Victoire and Dominique would share the king sized bed and Molly would take the sofa. So that left Lily, Rose, Roxanne, and Lucy to the bunks in the second bedroom. 

“I get top!” Lily shouted before she darted into the room, heading for one of the bunks. Before she could reach one she was pulled back and Roxanne rushed past her, claiming the top bunk for herself. Lily pouted and turned to head for the other bunk only to find that Lucy was already seated on the top bunk of the other. She turned back to the bottom bunk under Roxanne and set down her suitcase. “Dang it.”

A knock sounded from the other room followed by, “Can someone please open this damn door already?”

Lily headed out of the bedroom and entered the hallway just in time to see Molly open up the door to the boy’s room. “No need to get your knickers in a twist, Al.”

Albus looked a bit flustered. “Sorry. I can’t find my book anywhere in our stuff. Perhaps it got mixed in with your guy’s things?”

Molly shrugged. “It’s worth a shot.”

“Not to worry Al,” James began, walking through the door behind his younger brother and ruffling his hair. He pulled his wand out of the back of his pants and waved it. Within moments, a book came flying out of the boy’s room and into James’s hand.

“James! Did you miss my entire explanation of my prank on Albus five minutes ago?!” yelled Fred from somewhere within the boys room. 

Albus was glaring towards the door to the boy’s room while Molly crossed her arms over her chest, glaring daggers at James. Lily plopped down onto the sofa, ready to watch Molly give her eldest brother a tongue lashing. “What part of ‘no magic’ did you not understand?”

“Oh come on,” James laughed. “It was one little summoning spell? What’s the big deal?”

Molly didn’t laugh, though Lily fought down a smile and met Albus’s eye as he fought to do the same thing. Sometimes their older brother was a bit of an idiot.

“The big deal is that we all agreed that no magic would be used on this vacation,” Molly countered. By this time, heads began to peek out of the rooms in the girl’s suite and the boys were looking through the doorway to see what was going on. “And since you can’t resist temptation to use magic ever since you turned seventeen two months ago, I’m going to have to ask you for your wand.”

James looked at her like she was nuts. “What? You can’t be serious.”

“Deadly,” Molly replied. 

Victoire stepped out of the one bedroom and walked over to stand beside Molly. “I’m going to have to agree with Molly. Hand it over.”

James scoffed and pulled his wand back out before handing it to Victoire. He then turned and stomped out of the girl’s room, past all the heads peeking through the doorway and back into the boy’s room. Silence reigned for a few minutes after James’s exit. 

“Okay,” Dominique began, clapping his hands together as he broke the silence and stepped into the girl’s room. “How about we head to the waterfront. Isn’t that where all the good shopping and food is?”


	3. Things That Go Bump In The Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And so the mystery begins. 
> 
> Lily Potter -- Georgie Henley  
> James Potter II -- Skandar Keynes  
> Albus Potter -- Logan Lerman
> 
> Rose Weasley -- Emma Stone  
> Hugo Weasley -- Will Poulter
> 
> Fred Weasley -- Roshon Fegan  
> Roxanne Weasley -- Katerina Graham
> 
> Molly Weasley -- Karen Gillan  
> Lucy Weasley -- Ellen Page
> 
> Victoire Weasley -- Amanda Seyfried  
> Dominique Weasley -- Saoirse Ronan  
> Louis Weasley -- William Moseley

For such a small town, the shopping area down by the docks was larger than expected. Shops and restaurants lined the cobblestone street that led down to the docks. Lily sighed as she walked along the street, looking around at the shops windows and street vendors selling their wares to tourists. The fourteen year old was now on her own, her cousins and siblings splitting off from the group they had come down here in whenever someone had spotted a shop that they fancied peeking in to. She herself had stopped and peeked into a couple of places and looked at some of the vendor’s carts, but so far she had yet to find anything that she wanted to buy.

“Hey,” a voice said just to her left and she glanced over to see Albus running over to catch up with her. 

“Hey,” she responded, grinning at her brother. She spotted a small bag in his hand. “Guess you found something you liked in that shop?”

Albus laughed and nodded. “Yeah. Though it’s not for me. I saw it and thought that Maddie might like it.”

Lily smiled as the siblings continued to walk down the street. Madeline Palmer was a Hufflepuff in her brother’s year that he was friends with after he literally ran into her during his first year. Lily had met her a few times and liked the girl. She was a little quiet, but nice. In short, a true Hufflepuff.

She glanced off towards the sea at her right, watching as other teens played in the water down by the docks. In the distance, through the haze she could make out an island. “Hey,” she muttered, nudging Albus in the side with her elbow.

“Ow! What?” he asked, rubbing his side where she had elbowed him. 

“Sorry,” she mumbled. She must have hit him harder then she thought. “Have you heard anything about that island?”

Albus frowned slightly, glanced towards the island in the distance and then shook his head. “No. Why?”

Lily looked away from the island and shrugged. “Just curious.”

“That would be Monk Island.”

Albus and Lily turned around to face the vender that they had passed while talking. The man appeared to be in his thirties and had a very slight accent. He had dark brown hair and piercing blue eyes that made Lily feel slightly uncomfortable. “I am sorry to startle you, I just couldn’t help but overhear your conversation.”

There was something about this man that Lily just couldn’t put her finger on. Something about him that she didn’t like. Though Albus must not have felt the same way as she did, for he simply waved it off. “It’s alright. What do you know about it?”

“Place is haunted,” he replied simply. “An old monk used to live there on his farm, but I guess he pissed someone off and they murdered him. They say his spirit haunts his farm.”

Albus frowned slightly. “Who says?”

The man shrugged. “Idiots that go out there on a dare.”

“Anyway,” Lily began as she started to pull her brother away from the vendor, eager to get out of there. There was just something about this guy that she really didn’t like. “Thanks for telling us about the island, but we gotta go.”

Albus frowned at her. “No, we don’t.”

“Yes, we do,” she said, glaring at her brother as she pulled him away from the cart. She sent a fake smile towards the vendor as she pulled her brother away, feeling the eyes of the man following her.

“What the hell was that all about?” Albus asked as they walked down the street away from the vendor.

Lily glanced back to see the man facing the opposite direction. “There was something off about him.”

“What?” Albus looked at her incredulously. “He seemed nice enough.”

“There’s just something about him I can’t put my finger on,” she responded, looking over at Albus. Albus was cut off from replying when Dominique came out of a shop they were about to pass and smiled when she spotted them. She carried two large, white paper bags in her hands. 

“I see someone has had some luck,” Albus commented as Dominique joined them and the three relatives continued walking down the street. 

Dominique laughed. “Very. Their shoes were buy one, get one free.”

“Don’t tell your sister about it,” Lily said, glancing over at Dominique. “We’d never get her out of there.”

“Too late. She was in there before I was,” Dominique replied with a grin. “Any sign of James yet?”

Albus and Lily both shook their heads. “No. I think he’s still on the top bunk sulking.”

“He didn’t say anything as we were leaving either,” Lily added.

Dominique sighed. “That’s James. But really, he should have expected them to take his wand away. He broke the one rule that we had set for this trip.”

“Though he did just turned seventeen last month,” Lily pointed out. “And I’ve noticed a pattern in our family. As soon as they turn seventeen they get a bit…what’s the Muggle saying I’ve heard…oh, trigger happy.”

Dominique pursed her lips and Albus looked thoughtful for a moment before nodding. “Good point.”

*****

 

Albus let out a soft groan. Who the hell had turned on the light in the middle of the night? Maybe James had decided to prank them all since he had been forced to give up his wand. The git had been asleep when they had arrived back at the hotel room that evening, which was extremely suspicious. James typically never went to bed before three in the morning during the summer holidays. Though that was true for all of them during the holidays. They would just all stay up late as a family, playing games (both Muggle and Wizarding) and sometimes even watching a movie on the television that their father had gotten when he was younger. Though heaven help anyone that tried to wake Albus the next morning and waking him in the middle of the night by having the lights on in the room was so wrong.

He opened his eyes and sat up in bed. “James would you…” the words died on his lips as his eyes focused on the source of the light. It was not the lights in the room as he expected. In fact, the room was still completely dark, except for the light emitting from a small bluish white ball hanging in the air before Albus. He frowned as he looked at the ball of light. “What the…”

Albus let out a soft gasp when he flew forward, right into his face and Albus felt a flash of fear. What was this thing and why did it seem like the light was inspecting him. It stayed in his face for a moment, making the rest of the room beyond it look even darker than before. Why was this thing interested in him and not anyone else? His breathing began to quicken and his heart pounded in his chest. 

“James,” he called softly. All he got in response was a grunt from his brother in the bunk above him. 

After a few moments that felt like an eternity to him, the ball moved back away from his face and Albus let out a sigh of relief. It went away, not completely but at least it was out of his face now. Now it was just sitting there again. Then, without warning it flew towards his chest. 

“JAMES!” he yelled, his voice full of fear. Right into his chest the light went, disappearing into his body and the world around him went black.


	4. Albus Acts Like a Loon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lily Potter -- Georgie Henley  
> James Potter II -- Skandar Keynes  
> Albus Potter -- Logan Lerman
> 
> Rose Weasley -- Emma Stone  
> Hugo Weasley -- Will Poulter
> 
> Fred Weasley -- Roshon Fegan  
> Roxanne Weasley -- Katerina Graham
> 
> Molly Weasley -- Karen Gillan  
> Lucy Weasley -- Ellen Page
> 
> Victoire Weasley -- Amanda Seyfried  
> Dominique Weasley -- Saoirse Ronan  
> Louis Weasley -- William Moseley

“JAMES!”

The eldest Potter’s eyes shot open at his younger brothers panicked yell. He had never heard his brother yell like that in his life. Sure, he was still irritated about getting his wand taken away, but all that was dwarfed by the concern he felt rising at his younger brother’s yell. He heard Hugo and Louis moving on the other bunk in the room and within moments someone had turned on the light. James winced momentarily at the sudden brightness before leaning over the side of the bed and looking down at his younger brother below him. The kid looked okay, though his expression was confused as he looked around at the room’s occupants.

“What the hell was that about Al?” Hugo asked from where he was now sitting up on the top bunk of the other bed. Louis was standing, leaning against it as they both watched Albus with furrowed brows.

“Al?” James inquired softly and the younger boy looked up at him, his expression still confused. Silence reigned in the room as the two boys stared at each other. “Well? What happened?”

Albus remained silent and continued looking around at them all with a confused expression. James felt his concern slipping away as Albus remained silent and the irritation returning, though now it was for a different reason. Both Potter boys liked their sleep. “Well? Are you going to say anything?”

One minute. Two minutes. Nothing. Albus just continued to sit there, not saying a word. James rolled his eyes and lay back down on the bed with an irritated sigh. “Whatever,” he mumbled. “Lou, lights.”

He heard his half Veela cousin moving and the lights went back out a few seconds later. James closed his eyes and heard the bunk beneath him shift as Albus lay back down. What the heck had that been all about? Albus had never yelled like that before and then he sat there looking around like a lost puppy. He had woken them all up to just sit there and look confused? What was he playing at? James rolled over onto his side. Whatever he was up to, James would find out. Tomorrow. Right now he wanted to go back to sleep.

*****

 

James wore a furrowed brow.

Lily gaped. 

Rose gaped.

Victoire gaped.

Molly gaped.

Dominique gaped.

Roxanne exchanged a glance with Fred, both of them with their eyebrows high on their foreheads.

Hugo looked like a fish out of water.

Louis had an eyebrow raised.

All of them watched Albus in the living room area where he was examining the television remote. They had woken up that morning and noticed right away that something was going on. Albus had first discovered his wand and thought that it was a back scratcher until James took it away and put it on the dresser. He had then discovered the toilet and flushed it ten times in a row, seeming fascinated by the water swirling around before it disappeared. And then when they had all gone into the main living area to eat the breakfast that Victoire had ordered for them that morning, he had found the television remote had had been obsessing over it for the past twenty minutes. All the while he never said a word.

“Um, did we miss something?” Lily asked, looking over at her eldest brother for a moment before focusing back on Albus. “He’s acting like…”

“ A loon,” Hugo finished. Rose rolled her eyes and smacked the back of his head. “Ow!”

“I’m just as clueless in this as you are,” James responded, not taking his eyes off his brother who jumped back as the television turned on and cowered behind the couch. “He woke us up in the middle of the night, yelling my name and didn’t say anything. Now he’s acting like…this.”

“A loon,” Hugo repeated. Rose smacked the back of his head again. “Ow! Would you stop doing that?!”

“I will when you stop acting like an idiot,” she countered, glaring at his for a moment before looking back towards Albus cowering behind the couch.

“Someone should stay with him,” Molly commented as they all continued to watch Albus. He was no longer looking fearful of the television and was now rather curious about it, though he remained behind the couch. “Make sure he doesn’t do sometime stupid.”

“And maybe he’ll snap out of,” Dominique paused, gesturing to Albus, “whatever this is.”

“I’ll stay,” Lily said, causing heads to turn and look at her.

Victoire nodded after a moment. “All right. Call if anything happens.”

“I will,” Lily responded as the group, minus her and Albus, began making their way to the door. James lingered a second and put a hand on her shoulder.

“Try talking to him,” he told her, looking over at Albus as he moved forward and closely inspected the picture on the television. “Something’s up.”

Lily nodded and James removed his hand and followed the others out the door. After the door was closed for a few seconds, Lily sighed and headed over to sit down on the couch. Albus paid her no mind as she plopped down and sat there watching him. After she sat there a few moments with Albus giving no indication to knowing she was there, she sat forward and rested her elbows on her knees. “Al?”

He started and turned to look at her. His face was blank for a moment before it settled into a slight frown, an expression Lily recognized that Albus sometimes wore when he was trying to remember something. But why was he wearing that expression when he looked at her? And sure Albus pulled a prank now and again, often teaming up with Fred and James, but Lily had a feeling that this wasn’t a prank. It was something in her gut and she was inclined to believe it, just like she believed that vendor the day before was up to no good. “What happened last night?”

Nothing. No response. He just continued to stare at her, as if he was trying to remember something. As if he was trying to remember her. If only he would just start talking, maybe they would be able to figure out what the hell was going on with him. After ten minutes of just sitting there with him staring at her, she rose from the couch and headed over to the kitchenette. She was hungry and maybe he was too. He hadn’t eaten anything since the night before so maybe some food would get him to talk. Lily set about getting something to eat, grabbing a chocolate muffin for Albus and toasting a bagel for herself. As the toaster dinged to let her know the bagel was done, she heard the sound of the balcony door opening. 

Albus was walked outside, looking around as if listening to something. Lily frowned and set the toasted bagel on the plate she had pulled out before walked slowly towards the door. Albus was leaning against the rail of the balcony, looking up at the sky. He then clasped his hands to his ears and fell to his knees, yelling, “NO! I CAN’T HELP YOU! LEAVE ME ALONE!”

“ALBUS!” Lily yelled as she ran through the living area and out onto the balcony, dropping down beside her brother. He still had his ears covered and was yelling for someone to leave him along. “Al, come on,” she said as she wrapped her arms around his waist and worked to get him standing again. She struggled for five minutes to get him inside, Albus yelling all the while and she was panting when she dropped him down onto the couch. She ran over and closed the door before running back to where Albus lay on the couch, slowly uncovering his ears, his eyes darting all around the room. She knelt down beside the couch and put her hand on his forehead. He didn’t feel warm. “Albus?”

His green eyes, so like their fathers locked on hers and her own, locked on hers and slowly but surely he began to calm down. Lily felt herself calming as well, especially when she spotted something in his eyes; recognition. “Lily.”

She nodded and gave him a small smile. “Yes. You’re all right Albus. Everything’s going to be okay,” she assured him, trying to reassure him and herself. Seeing her older brother acting like this was…frightening. What was wrong with him? She swallowed and ran a hand through his black hair and he relaxed more at the touch.”You’ll be all right.”

“Lily,” he murmured, his eyes closing as she continued to run her fingers through his hair, an action their mother did every time one of them wasn’t feeling well. Lily continued this action and slowly but surely Albus fell asleep. Once he was breathing evened out and Lily was sure that her brother was asleep, she pushed herself up from where she had been kneeling beside the couch and walked into the bedroom she shared, heading for the nightstand where she knew her cell phone was. Their father had insisted on them several years ago and now all her cousins had them as well.

She grabbed hers and scrolled through the contact list before pressing call when she came to her eldest brother’s phone number. He answered after two rings. “Lily?”

“You guys need to come back,” she told him, walking back into the living room while she held the phone to her ear. She looked over at where Albus lay asleep on the couch. “Something strange just happened.”

“Lily-”

“I’ll explain when you get here,” she cut him off. “Just get here as soon as you can.”

*****

 

“What are we going to do?” Lily asked as she had James stood out on the balcony, looking back at where Albus was still asleep on the couch in the living room of the suite the girls shared. Everyone else was still out enjoying the day, well as much as they could while they continued to worry about Albus. But James had convinced them to come back later, give him and Lily some more time along with Albus. 

James looked back from where he had been leaning on the railing, looking out at the horizon to where Albus lay on the couch. He looked back towards the horizon and sighed, dropping his head. “I don’t know.”

Lily leaned against the railing beside him, looking over at him. “Should we call mum and dad?”

James glanced back into the suite again, worrying his lip. This was only their second stop. If they called home now, the trip would probably be over for them before it ever truly started. But part of him really wanted his parents there to help deal with whatever was happening to his younger brother. “We’ll give it a day,” he said after a few moments. “If he’s not better by tomorrow night, we’ll call home.”

Lily nodded after a moment. “Okay.”

They remained there for a few moments before James pushed back from the railing. When Lily turned around, he through an arm around her shoulders. “Come on, Lils. Let’s see about getting some lunch.”

*****

 

James jumped awake at the sound of the bunk beneath him shifting. Usually he was a heavy sleeper and slight sounds wouldn’t wake him up, but apparently his worry for his younger brother had changed that tonight. He opened his eyes and stared up at the ceiling as he heard Albus move around the room for a few minutes before the door opened and closed behind him a few seconds later. Where was he going? Wherever it was, he wasn’t going alone. James quickly leapt down to the floor and thankfully didn’t wake Hugo or Louis. Hugo was a pretty light sleeper while Louis slept even deeper than him and Albus did. A Muggle bomb could probably be dropped nearby and the guy would still be asleep. 

Not even bothering to change his clothes, James ran out of the room and into the living area of the suite the boys shared just in time to see the door close behind his brother. James started to run after him but stopped when he past the door to the girls room. Lily. Lily would want to know what was going on too. Backtracking a few steps, James went to the door and pushed it open, running into the girl’s suite and down the hall into the bedroom that he knew his sister was in. He quietly opened the door and swiftly crossed the room to the bunk that he knew his sister slept in. He poked her and she moaned in her sleep. He grabbed her shoulder and shook her. “Lily,” he whispered.

Her eyes flickered open and peered at him in the darkness. “James? What-“

“Albus just left,” he said, cutting her off. That woke her up

She pushed off his hand and made to get up. “Well, what are you waiting for. Let’s catch up with him.”

The two siblings ran out of the room in their pajamas and were out the door of the girl’s suite within moments. The hallway outside the rooms were empty, no sign of their brother. James started down the hallway that would take them to the lobby of the hotel. 

“Hopefully he’s just leaving the lobby,” James commented as they ran. Within moments they were at the top of the stairs and sure enough, just walking out the front door of the hotel was a pajama clad Albus. The woman manning the counter for the night eyed them wearily as they ran down the stairs and out the door after their brother.

They followed him at a distance through the dark, quiet streets of Elsegårde Strand, trying not to alert their brother to their presence. Not that he was paying all that much attention to anything behind him. He just kept walking forward, turning here and there every now and then.

“Where is he going?” Lily asked quietly, glancing over at her eldest brother beside her.

James frowned for a moment as he looked around the area that they were currently passing through. “I think he’s heading for the harbor.”

Lily frowned. Why would Albus be heading there? Then again, why was he out, walking about a small town in Denmark well past midnight, in his pajamas? What in Merlin’s name was going on with him?

Sure enough, a few minutes later they were passing through the cobblestone streets and running past the dark shops down by the harbor, Albus heading for the docks. All that could be heard was the water lapping against the boats and waves crashing against the shore in the distance. He headed down a nearly empty dock, Lily and James following him at a distance. Albus reached the end of the dock and stopped. Lily and James went and hid behind a large crate next to one of the few boats in this row and peeked over it, watching Albus as he stood there staring out towards Monk Island. Things were silent for a few minutes, only the sounds of night and the ocean around them reaching their ears. 

“I can’t do anything!” Albus yelled out at the ocean.

The siblings hiding behind the crate felt a chill go down their spines as they began to hear something else, something that was no natural. Voices. Ethereal voices in the distance. Some in a foreign language and some they could understand.

“Help.”

“Help us.”

“We are captured.”

Voices. Screaming, begging for help. 

“I can’t help you!” Albus yelled, responding to the voices. “Let me be in peace!”

The voices continued to scream, calling for him to help them. But why him? Why Albus? Had Albus heard them earlier? Had that been why he had freaked out in the hotel room? But why could Lily hear them now when she hadn’t heard anything earlier? Her thought process was interrupted when a swirling blue light enveloped Albus. Lily gasped. Albus turned around to face them and the light disappeared.

“Please tell me you have your wand,” James said as Albus approached them. Lily shook her head. It was still back on the dresser in the hotel room. 

They unconsciously backed up a few steps as Albus came to a stop before them. Something in her gut began screaming that this wasn’t her brother. The person standing before them wasn’t Albus. “Who are you? ‘Cause you are not our brother.” 

James glanced over at her with an expression that said ‘what did you just say?’ before looking back towards Albus, who sighed. “My name is Aron Stover. I died in 1863 and somehow ended up in the body of your brother, and I can’t leave it.”

Two jaws dropped open.


	5. Dead Men Do Tell Tales

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is dedicated to Len (DarkLadyofSlytherin)! Happy birthday!
> 
> Lily Potter -- Georgie Henley  
> James Potter II -- Skandar Keynes  
> Albus Potter -- Logan Lerman
> 
> Rose Weasley -- Emma Stone  
> Hugo Weasley -- Will Poulter
> 
> Fred Weasley -- Roshon Fegan  
> Roxanne Weasley -- Katerina Graham
> 
> Molly Weasley -- Karen Gillan  
> Lucy Weasley -- Ellen Page
> 
> Victoire Weasley -- Amanda Seyfried  
> Dominique Weasley -- Saoirse Ronan  
> Louis Weasley -- William Moseley

“Excuse me?” Lily said after a few minutes of just standing and staring at the not-Albus. She glanced out of the corner of her eye at James, who was still staring at not-Albus with a slack jaw and wide eyes. Had he really just said that he was some guy that died in the 1800’s and was now stuck in her brother’s body?

Not-Albus smiled sheepishly. “I know this is hard to believe, but it is the God’s honest truth. I died in 1863 and somehow ended up in your brother’s body.”

Lily glanced over at James, who had seemed to regain his brain and caught her glance. They had grown up in a world filled with magic, but even this was out there. Ghosts were one thing. You saw them on a daily basis at Hogwarts, but never had she heard of a ghost getting stuck in a person. She began to shake her head, her mouth open to deny it, when she stopped. It explains why he’s been acting weird.

His blank stares and how he did not even seem to know his siblings. His reaction to the television and the toilet. And it would explain why he would use his wand as a back scratcher. Ever since he had gotten the thing he had treated it with reverence. Lily sighed. “Okay, let’s say for one second I believe you-“

“What?!” James squawked. 

Lily looked over at him to see him staring at her, his eyes wide. “It explains how he was acting this morning. Why he looked at us, even his wand as if he had never seen it before in his life.”

James just stared at her for a moment before looking toward not-Albus and staring at him. After a few minutes he looked back toward Lily. “Oh bloody hell.”

“Um…excuse me,” not-Albus said, drawing the attention of James and Lily back toward him. “What do you mean ‘wand?’”

“The stick you used as a back scratcher this morning,” James said dryly. 

Not-Albus’s eyes widened. “Magic. You’re part of the Legion?”

Lily and James glanced at each other before looking back toward not-Albus. “The what?” they asked in unison.

“Apparently not,” not-Albus responded, his face falling slightly. “But if you are not part of the Legion, and yet you have a magic wand, what are you?”

Lily and James looked toward each other. “James,” Lily began slowly. “I’m starting to believe him.”

James swallowed loudly and nodded. He glanced over at not-Albus before looking at Lily. “We should get back to the hotel. We can talk there.”

******

 

“Why did you wake us up again?” Hugo asked from his spot on the couch in the living room of the suite the girls shared. 

Lily and James stood before the television set, not-Albus between them. The rest of the group, who were not at all happy about being woken up in the middle of the night, were flopped on the couch and arm chairs. Lily sighed and glanced over at James before looking back at their cousins. “We woke you, because we found out what’s wrong with Albus.”

“What was it? The calamari you insisted on trying?” Rose asked from where she sat beside Hugo. She reached up and rubbed sleep from one eye.

James hesitated before speaking. “He’s not Albus.”

Silence. After a moment, it was broken by laughter. Between laughs, ‘good one, James’ and ‘yeah right’ were heard floating through the air. Lily groaned and leaned her head back, staring up at the ceiling, her lips pursed. James sighed and hung his head. 

Not-Albus looked between them before stepping forward. “They are speaking the truth. I am not their brother and you are not my family.”

Slowly the laughter began to subside as they stared at not-Albus. Except for Hugo, who continued laughing well after everyone else had stopped. Rose smacked the back of his head. “Ow! What the bloody hell was that for?”

Victoire was staring at not-Albus. “You’re telling the truth…”

He nodded. “My name is Aron Stover and I died in 1863.”

Stunned silence once again filled the room, but this time it was not broken by laughter. Just a few soft mutterings of shock. 

Lily glanced around at her stunned family before looking toward not-Albus, or rather Aron. “You mentioned something about the Legion, earlier. What is that?”

Aron looked toward her. “The Legion was a group dedicated to riding the world of evil, stopping those who delved into dark magic.”

“Sounds kind of like the Order,” Louis said after a moment, breaking the silence that had followed Aron’s words.

Aron frowned at Louis. “What is this ‘Order’ that you speak of?”

“A lot like your Legion from the sound of it,” Victoire responded. 

“You explain first,” Lily said, causing Aron to look toward her. “Then we’ll answer your questions.”

He looked at her for a moment before nodding. “As you wish. Anyway, you must be born into the Legion. You cannot just join it. My parents were in it, and so was I.”

“Those voices were heard at the dock,” James said after a moment. “Did they have something to do with this Legion?”

“What voices?”

“You went down to the dock?”

“QUIET!” Lily screamed. All the talking and questions ceased. She gestured to Aron. “He snuck out to go down to the docks, and James and I followed him. And down there we heard…voices. Screaming for help,” she said quietly, looking at the coffee table without really seeing it. She lifted her gaze and looked toward Aron. “Who were they?”

Aron looked toward the doors leading out to the balcony, beyond which the ocean was visible. “They are like me. Spirits pulled from their peaceful afterlife for some unknown reason. Though for some there was no afterlife. Like myself,” he added a few seconds later, hanging his head.

“What do you mean?” Lily asked.

He lifted his head and looked toward her. Albus’s deep green eyes held a sadness that Lily knew was not her brothers. “A few months before my death, the Legion captured a necromancer named Soren Bigsby. We had been searching for him for years. He had been a simple dairy farmer, happily married. Until his wife passed, and he turned to dark magic to try and bring her back. The power corrupted him and over time it was less and less about getting her back, and more about using his magic to get more wealth and power. For his actions, he had been sentence to die by the hand of the only one that could use the Book, an ancient text with spells so powerful very few could handle the power. But he escaped, and to stop him she killed him at the price of her own life.”

“You loved her, didn’t you?” Molly asked, breaking the silence that had filled the room for several minutes. 

Aron looked down and nodded. “Her name was Kara. She was the only one in my lifetime that was strong enough to handle the power, for every year the Legion grew smaller and smaller, and I was hoping to one day make her my wife.”

“You killed yourself,” James stated, staring at Aron with a blank expression. 

Lily glanced toward James and knew that her brother was right well before Aron nodded. He had been so lost without Kara, that he had killed himself. Lily looked down. She loved her family, every single one of them and could not imagine life without them. But to take her own life because of it? She just could not get the thinking.

“I lasted three months before I could not take it anymore. Kara had sacrificed her save the Legion, which fell apart after her death,” Aron said. “No one else could handle the power of the book. To protect it, we split it into sections, each going to a different member to protect and hide their part. After that…we just stopped meeting.”

“Okay, so we know how you died. But how did you come back?” Rose asked.

Aron shrugged. “I do not know. One moment, there was nothing. Just darkness and silence. The next, I’m pulled back into the world where there was this…presence. And then a voice, pulling me away and into young Albus here.”

“Presence?” Lily asked, frowning. “What kind of presence?”

“It felt like,” he sighed, shaking his head. “It’s not possible, but it felt like the magical presence of Soren.”

Lily looked away from Aron, staring at the coffee table but not really seeing it. He had killed himself, was somehow pulled out of wherever he had been and back into the world, and somehow escaped the one who had pulled him back, instead going into Albus and getting stuck. A voice had called him away from the presence. She looked up. “You said a voice called you to Albus. Do you know who’s?”

Aron gazed at her for a moment before nodding. “After hearing him speak, the voice undoubtedly belonged to your brother,” he said before looking away from Lily and toward James. “Your voice pulled me away from the presence.”

James gaped like a fish, opening and closing his mouth. “What?” he managed to squeak out after a moment.

“How could he have done that?” Fred asked.

Rose sat up as if she had been shocked. “I’ve got it. The summoning charm. You cast a nonverbal summoning charm to get Albus’s book,” she said, pointing at James. “Perhaps that did it.”

“Summoning charm?” Aron asked, gazing around at all those in the room before his eyes settled on Lily. “I believe it is time for you to give me an explanation.”

Lily nodded, fiddling with her hands. “Well,” she began, looking at Aron. “To start off, we’re all witches and wizards.”

Aron said nothing. He just stood there looking at her with a blank expression. Lily shifted on her feet. “Um…”

“We’re part of the magical world in Great Britain,” Molly said, causing everyone to looked toward her. “It’s been hidden from the regular world using powerful enchantments since the Statute of Wizarding Secrecy since…1690….something.”

“1692,” Rose added. Molly nodded her thanks before Rose continued. “We use our wands to cast spells, and a summoning charm is a spell that can bring an object to us. James used it to summon Albus’s book.”

“Yeah, since he didn’t remember me talking about hiding it from Albus,” Fred muttered, crossing his arms over his chest and sinking back into the couch cushions. 

Aron stood there, looking between them all. “So you all belong to a world of magic, much different than mine.”

James nodded. “Yeah, that pretty much sums it up.”

“I knew there were many different brands of magic in existence, but this is my first time encountering another,” Aron said, shaking his head slightly as though he was processing what they had told him. 

Lily stared at Aron and had a feeling her family was as well. Different brands? She had spent her whole life around magic, and yet had never heard anything about there being another brand. Though the way he had described the magic used by the Legion…this book of power. What he said sounded impossible, and yet the more she thought about it, the more it made sense. There were some things even the magical world had no explanation for. 

“How many brands are there?” she asked, breaking the stunned silence.

Aron shrugged. “I do not know. Hundreds…thousands.”

Lily nodded slowly, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. “So…the magic that brought you back, is a different branch from ours.”

“It appears so,” he said, nodding.

“And those voices we heard at the docks,” she said, gesturing to herself and James. “Were they brought back by the same magic?”

He nodded slowly. “I believe so, and that the same brand is being used to keep them there.”

“Keep them where?” Lucy asked slowly.

Aron turned toward her. “The island that you can see from the docks.”

Lily remembered being curious about the island the first day they had been here, and the man at the docks that she had a bad feeling about. “Monk Island,” she said. Aron looked at her and she could feel the eyes of everyone else on her as well. “I saw it our first day here and a street vendor said that its haunted by an old monk that was murdered there.”

“So that presence you talked about,” Rose said. “That brought you back and those voices back is on that island and is keeping them there?”

“It would appear so,” Aron replied. 

“Then we need to go there and figure out what is going on,” James said, Lily and a couple others nodding in agreement.

Molly and Victoire, however, were not among those nodded. 

“Sorry guys,” Victoire began. “Not happening. I’m going to call mum and dad in the morning and they can come figure this out.”

“But,” Lily and James began at the same time. Hugo looked put out and Fred seemed to be pouting.

Molly shook her head. “I agree with Vic. This is way over our heads. We should let the professionals handle this.”

“Now, I suggest we all get back to bed,” Victoire said. “I’ll call home after breakfast.”

There was a lot of groaning and muttering as people got up and headed back to bed. The boys headed back to their suite while the girls headed off to the bedroom, the room slowly emptying until only James, Lily, Aron, and Victoire remained. The blonde smiled sadly. “Sorry, guys. This is beyond us.”

Lily nodded hesitantly, glancing toward James. “Right,” she said. “Go on in. I’ll be in in a minute.” 

Victoire watched them for a moment before nodding and she turned and headed down the hall. Lily watched her disappear into the girl’s room before she glanced over at the Aron and James. “Wait until everyone’s asleep and then meet me here,” she whispered. James smirked and nodded. Aron studied her for a moment before nodding. Lily smiled. 

“I’ll see you in the morning,” she said at normal talking level before she headed down the hall. She glanced back at them and saw them still standing in the living room and winked at them before she disappeared into the girls bedroom.


	6. Psycho Scarecrows…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lily Potter -- Georgie Henley  
> James Potter II -- Skandar Keynes  
> Albus Potter -- Logan Lerman
> 
> Rose Weasley -- Emma Stone  
> Hugo Weasley -- Will Poulter
> 
> Fred Weasley -- Roshon Fegan  
> Roxanne Weasley -- Katerina Graham
> 
> Molly Weasley -- Karen Gillan  
> Lucy Weasley -- Ellen Page
> 
> Victoire Weasley -- Amanda Seyfried  
> Dominique Weasley -- Saoirse Ronan  
> Louis Weasley -- William Moseley

Lily had to wait an hour before the suite went quiet. I had taken Lucy the longest to fall back to sleep and she had heard someone in the bathroom. But after ten minutes of hearing nothing but deep breathing, she slipped quiet from her bed and quietly as she could, pulled on her jeans, a simple blue t-shirt, and shoes before stowing her wand in her pocket. She froze when Lucy rolled over in her sleep before she left the room. She slowly pulled open the door and slipped out into the hall, closing it behind her as quietly as she could. She glanced down the hall to see that the door to the bedroom that Molly and Victoire were sharing was cracked open. Lily crept down the hall and peaked in. From the moonlight shining in through the window, she could see two figures in the bed, both breathing deep. Good, both asleep.

Lily slowly moved out to the living area. She looked toward the boy’s door and was surprised to find it open. Two figures stood silhouetted by the moonlight shinning through the window of the room behind them. They were gesturing toward something. Lily frowned and glanced in the direction they were pointing. She froze in her tracks. Bullocks. She had forgotten that Molly was sleeping on the couch. When she had told the boys to meet her here, she must have been in the loo.

She took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. The older girl was breathing deeply, her face turned into the couch. She looked toward the boys in the doorway. They were gesturing for her to come. She could make it. It was not that far. And from the times she had remembered all the cousins sleeping over before, Molly had not been a light sleeper. She could make it to the boys room no problem. 

Lily moved forward, her feet not making any noise as she walked. Her ears strained to her for any change in Molly’s breathing. She bit her lip the entire way across the room, glancing between the door to the boy’s suite and Molly on the couch. She froze when the girl shifted, mumbling something Lily could not understand. But after a moment she settled down again and Lily finished crossing the room. She only allowed herself a sigh of relief once the door connecting the two suites was closed. She let out a soft laugh, smiling toward James and Aron. “Let’s go.”

“How are we going to get there?” Aron asked as they quickly walked toward the front door of the suite the boys shared. Lily glanced toward James, and though he did not look toward her she could see his trademark smirk, the one he usually wore when he was planning a massive prank.

He did not say anything until they were out in the hallway with the door to the suite closed behind them. He reached into his pocket and pulled out two small objects. Lily grinned at her eldest brother. “We fly, of course. We can take off at the docks.”

Aron frowned slightly, leaning forward to study the small objects in James’s hand. “Are those brooms?”

Lily and James nodded as Aron straightened. “I expected them to be bigger.”

James chuckled as he put them back in his pocket and they started making their way down the hall to leave the hotel. “They’re shrunk down. Otherwise I would not have been able to sneak them in my suitcase.”

Lily snorted as they made their way down the staircase to the lobby. “Yeah, that would be interesting to explain to airport security.”

“I know what security is, but what’s an airport?” Aron asked as they walked through the lobby. Lily noticed the night desk worker look toward them, but saw that upon recognizing them he looked back down at the computer. 

James and Lily glanced at each other. How were they supposed to understand modern Muggle technology to him? “Um,” Lily began as they walked out of the hotel and headed for the street. “Muggles have advanced a lot since you died.”

Aron opened his mouth to say something, but James cut him off. “A Muggle is someone that is not magical in our world.”

Aron nodded. “Right.”

“Anyway, a plane can fly like our brooms can. Except that they don’t use magic to fly, none at all,” Lily explained. “And an airport is, well like a dock for ships, except for planes. They land and take off from them.”

Aron watched her as she spoke, an expression of awe one his face. “Incredible. If they don’t use magic, how do they fly?”

Lily shrugged as they walked down the streets of Elsegårde Strand. “We know a bit about a lot of Muggle things, but exactly how an airplane works is something I don’t know.”

“Same,” James added. 

Aron looked slightly disappointed, though his expression of disappointment was so different from the one that Albus sometimes wore. It once again reminded her that the person walking with them was not her brother, the prefect and student that gave Rose a run for her money in classes. The chaser that had won Gryffindor the Quidditch Cup the year prior and the brother that had joined James for a prank on Bryan James, her first boyfriend that had dumped her for some Ravenclaw after two weeks of dating. 

The rest of the way to the docks was in silence, their second time taking this route that night. The answers to all their questions were on the island. Who was bringing the dead back and why? Why had Aron been brought back? How could they get him out of Albus? As they approached the docks, Lily’s eyes landed on Monk Island. Everything that was going on was centered on that island. 

When they arrived at the docks, there was one boat that was preparing for an early start. But the few men on the ship were busy preparing it for the day. Lily, Aron, and James walked to the end of the row a few over from where the boat was and James pulled the brooms out from his pocket. He pulled out his wand and within seconds, the two tiny brooms had become full sized. Lily glanced at Aron as she took her broom from James, seeing an awed expression on his face. She mounted her broom and gestured with her head for him to get on. “Well, come on.”

He climbed on behind her as James mounted his own broom, putting his hands around Lily’s waist. “Hold on,” she told him, glancing over her shoulder at him before kicking off. His arms tightened around her waist as they shot up into the air. She looked over to see James beside her before she angled her broom and shot off toward the island. 

The cold air quickly numbed the skin of her face and she could hardly feel her fingers clenched around the broom beneath her. Her hair blew about in the wind and she could hear Aron trying to keep it out of his face behind her. Beneath them, the water appeared almost black and the setting moon reflected off the waves, turning the crests silver. Monk Island loomed before them, a dark mass rising above the water. Towering trees and rocky shores. 

When they got closer to the island, Lily spotted James heading down and followed his lead. They came down in a small cove that faced the mainland, where an old dock still remained. By the time they landed on the dock, which creaked and groaned under their weight, the Eastern horizon was tinged with pink. She waited for Aron to dismount behind her before getting off the broom herself.

“Here,” said James, taking her broom from her and shrinking it back down. He then handed the shrunken broom back to her. “Just in case.”

Just in case she had to use magic, which would set off the underage magic alarms. Hopefully she would not have to. That would bring their parents right to them and the vacation would be ruined, though after this was all over and Aron was out of Albus, would they even continue their vacation? Lily shook herself mentally. They would deal with that later. First they had to get Aron out of Albus, and to do that they needed to find out what was going on. 

She stowed her wand in her pocket and looked toward the forest that surrounded the small cove. Tall pines towered above them and the water lapped against the rocky shore. She could hear birds chirping in the trees as they woke up. She glanced over at James. He was tense, like he often was before a Quidditch game. “Let’s go see who’s doing what.”

He started down the dock, heading toward the forest with Lily and Aron a few steps behind him. 

******

 

“VIC! DOM! WE GOT A PROBLEM!”

Victoire jolted awake at the sound of Molly’s voice. Early morning sunlight shown through the bedroom window. She sat up and glanced over at her sister, who had also been startled awake by their cousin’s yell. The door was pushed open and Molly stood in the doorway, her hair still a mess from sleep. Her eyes were wide with panic. Beyond Molly, she could see the rest of her family waking up, all looking confused.

“What’s going on?” Victoire asked as she pushed the covers off and got out of bed. She heard Dominique do the same. 

“They’re gone,” Molly replied. “All three of them are gone.”

Victoire felt her stomach drop. Molly did not even have to say their names for her to know who she was talking about. She moved out of the room, moving around Molly as she headed for the main living area. The door to the boy’s room was already open and Fred was stepping through. 

“Well, we know where they’ve gone,” Victoire said as she walked down the hall. Lucy peeked out of the girls’ room, looking confused. “But how did they get there? We all left our brooms at home…”

Fred looked sheepish as he stood beside the door that attached the two suits. “That’s not entirely true…”

Victoire stared at him and felt Molly and Dominique come up on either side of her. “You brought our brooms?”

Fred grinned sheepishly. “James and I shrunk them and put them in our luggage.”

Victoire closed her eyes, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. A no magic vacation and they had brought everyone’s brooms. Of course. That was James and Fred. She just had to not kill the latter of the two standing before her. 

She opened her eyes, glaring at the cousin before her. He had just graduated from Hogwarts and still acted like a first year. She would deal with him later. First she had to go and get James, Lily, and Albus, Aron, whoever it was, off that island. 

“Molly, you stay here. Keep an eye on everyone,” she said, never taking her eyes off of Fred’s downcast face. “Fred, go get my broom as well as Dom’s and Louis’s. And tell him to get dressed. We’re going after them.”

******

 

The trio hiked through the forest, leaves and twigs crunching beneath their feet. Lily sighed as they walked, wiping sweat from her brow. It was still early morning and the shadows of trees kept them cool. Around them they could hear birds flying through the trees and the occasional frog croaking. Lily had no idea how long they had been walking, for when she looked up, the sky was overcast. The smell of rain was in the air. Perhaps she would have to get a watch. She knew that her father had one; maybe it was about time she got one as well. 

The trees began to thin and the three of them emerged onto the edge of a large field covered in green grass that looked like it needed to be watered and plenty of weeds. On the other side, she could see an old barn with rusted farm equipment alongside it. 

“This field has to take up most of the island,” Aron said. 

“Maybe whoever brought you back is in that barn,” Lily said, glancing over at James on her left and then at Aron on her right. 

Aron nodded and started forward, Lily and James a few steps behind him. They walked, watching their step so that they would not trip over any hidden rocks, which there were plenty of. About halfway across the field, they came across a shallow rut in the dirt. Nearby was a scarecrow with a crow picking at its head. Aron stopped and crouched down, taking a bit of dirt between his fingers. Lily and James stopped just behind him. She glanced right and left and saw that the rut seemed to run the length of the field.

“It’s dead,” Aron said, looking at the dirt. Lily crouched down beside him as the crow began squawking. “All the nutrients are gone from the soil.”

“I’ve never heard of a spell doing that,” Lily said as she glanced up at James, whose brow was furrowed. 

James shook his head. “Neither have I.”

Lily looked back towards Aron. “Have you ever heard of something doing this?”

Aron wiped the dirt of his fingers and looked at her. “Never.”

SQWAK! 

Lily frowned. Something about the crows cry did not sound right. 

“Uh, guys…”

Lily looked toward her brother, who was staring toward the scarecrow. She looked toward it to see that the crow was gone and a few black feathers were drifting toward the ground. She glanced around the sky for some sign of the crow, but there was none. No birds flew in the sky above the field. Thunder sounded in the distance as a chill went down her spine. She stood, pulling her wand from her pocket. Sure, it would set off the underage alarms, but something here was not right.

And then the scarecrow lifted its head and looked right at her.


	7. … and Sinister Shadows

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lily Potter -- Georgie Henley  
> James Potter II -- Skandar Keynes  
> Albus Potter -- Logan Lerman
> 
> Victoire Weasley -- Amanda Seyfried  
> Dominique Weasley -- Saoirse Ronan  
> Louis Weasley -- William Moseley

When the scarecrow lifted its head, Lily did the natural thing. She screamed. She heard Aron yell as the scarecrow pulled its arms loose and dropped to the ground, never taking its eyes off the three of them. 

“Bloody hell!” she heard James yell, lifting his wand and sending a wordless spell toward it. Red light burst from the end of his wand and flew toward the scarecrow. It hit between the scarecrows hallow eyes and bounced, flying off to who knows where. “Shit! Run!”

The three of them turned and ran, Aron leading the way with James bringing up the rear. The thing moved with impossible speed. James set more spells at it, but like the stunner they simply bounced off or just plain missed the thing. Lily ran faster than she ever had in her life. She was vaguely aware of Aron leading them toward the abandoned barn. She stumbled several times, but thankfully did not fall and just kept running.

She heard James yelp behind her and turned to see the scarecrow had jumped on his back. He raised his wand, but the scarecrow grabbed it and snapped it in half. 

“JAMES! IMPEDIMENTA!” she screamed. Of course the spell bounced off, but it got the scarecrows attention away from her now helpless older brother. It dropped her brother’s now broken wand and turned its head toward her. She turned and ran, throwing spells over her shoulder as she ran. 

Aron reached the barn a good ways ahead of her and struggled for a moment with the door before he got it open. He held it open and looked back at her, his eyes wide. “RUN!”

She approached a large rock and pointed her wand at it. “Wingardium Leviosa!” she yelled and just as she passed it, it lifted off the ground. She glanced back and ended the spell, letting the hovering stone fall on the scarecrows head. James was able to pass it and catch up with her before the scarecrow lifted the stone off its head and growled at them before leaping up and continuing to pursue them. They ran, Aron yelling at them to hurry as the scarecrow chased them. They flew through the doorway to the barn, Aron slamming the door closed behind them. It shuddered a few seconds later when the scarecrow reached it, growling as it tried to enter.

James and Lily came to a stop inside, panting heavily. Her legs hurt from the running and her ankle was sore from the few times she had stumbled. She could feel sweat dripping down her forehead. She let out a strangled gasp when she heard the creatures growling from up on the roof of the barn. Lily swallowed heavily. “What the hell is that thing?”

“I do not know,” Aron replied. Lily glanced toward him to see him staring at the roof as well. “It’s waiting for us since it cannot find a way in.”

She looked back toward the roof. “Peachy.”

“My wand,” she heard James say. She looked over at him looking at his empty hands, seeming to be on the verge of tears. “It broke my wand.”

Lily rolled her eyes as she pocketed her wand and then proceeded to walk over to her brother. She grabbed him by the shoulders. “Forget the wand. The thing was going to kill you.”

He looked up at her. “But-“

“I’d rather have you with no wand than you being dead,” she snapped. No wand and no way to defend himself was better than being dead. Sure, he was annoying sometimes and needed a good hexing, but he was her brother and she could not imagine life without him. 

He looked at her blankly for a moment before nodding. “You’re right.”

“If you need a wand, use mine,” she said, pulling out her wand.

He shook his head. “No, you might need it. If I need to use one, I’ll use Al’s.”

Because he can’t, she finished in her head. A look at James’s face told her that the same thought had gone through his head. Apparently Aron had heard his comment, for when they looked toward him he was holding Albus’s wand out toward James. James took it hesitantly and put it in his pocket.

Thunder shook the barn and soon after, the strong scent of rain. Lily looked toward the roof as she heard the rain begin to pelt it. Great. They had a psycho scarecrow after them, were stuck in this barn, James’s wand was history, and on top of it all it was now raining. Oh, and she had broken the underage rule. That was bound to send up some alarms back home.

“What are we going to do?” she asked, looking away from the roof and toward the two boys with her., for which she was extremely thankful. “How are we going to get away from it? Spells just bounce off.”

“We could just quickly fly out,” James said, reaching into his pocket for his broom. His eyes went wide and he went to check a different pocket.   
Lily frowned at her brother. “Let me guess, you can’t find your broom.”

He looked at her with wide eyes, looking as if he were on the verge of crying. “First my wand, now my broom.”

She sighed. “Well, there goes that option because there is no way my broom is going to fit all three of us.”

“Perhaps there is something in this barn we could use,” Aron suggested as he glanced around the dark barn.

Lily nodded slowly. “Hopefully there is,” she said as she pulled out her wand. “Lumos.”

The tip of the wand lit, lighting up a small amount of the area around them. James pulled out Albus’s and proceeded to light it and more of their surroundings became clearing. There was bales of hay, a few farm tools, some things covered by tarps, and a ladder leading up to the loft.

“What’s under the tarps?” she asked, looking at a particularly large one in the center of the barn. 

Holding up their wands, James and Lily approached it, Aron a few steps behind them. Using their free hands, the pulled it off. They stepped back as it flouted to the ground, emitting a large cloud of dust. Lily cough and waved her free hand before her face to clear the air. She looked up at what had been uncovered. Some sort of tractor.

She looked towards James, who had a smirk playing at his lips. “Now this we can work with.”

*****

 

Harry sighed as he looked through a rather dull report. Half the life of an Auror was action packed, the other half was paperwork. The latter was not something he considered fun. He would much rather be out on the field, or at home with his family. His eyes strayed to one of the pictures that sat on his desk, the corners of his mouth turning upward. It had been taken at a surprise party that had been thrown in honor of his fortieth birthday the previous July. Ginny stood beside him, his arm around her waist. Just over her shoulder stood James, grinning like he almost always was. Albus stood beside his father, who’s other hand was on fifteen year olds shoulder. Before them stood Lily, leaning back against her father.

A knock on the door to his office made him look up. “Come in,” he called.

The door opened a second later and Hermione stepped into the room, closing the door behind her. Harry smiled and stood from his chair, walking around to the front of his desk and leaning against it. Then he noticed her expression and frowned. “What’s wrong?”

“I was on my way down to invite you to lunch when I ran into Sophia,” she replied, coming to a stop before his desk. He remembered Sophia. She was one of those that monitored the usage of underage magic. “She was heading here to tell you that Lily just performed underage magic.”

Harry frowned. He knew the children had agreed well before the trip that it would be magic free. And Lily knew better than to use magic outside of school, no matter how much she sometimes wanted to hex her brother at home. “That’s not like her.”

“No, it’s not,” Hermione agreed. “But Sophia also told me the spells that she used. An Impediment Jinx, a levitation charm, and several stunners.”

“Stunners?” he echoed. He felt a cold knot of dread in his stomach. “I need to get home. First I’ll need to let people know I’m leaving early.”

The corners of Hermione’s mouth twitch upward. “Already done. Had a feeling you would be heading home after that bit.”

Despite the feeling of dread, Harry smiled at her. “You’re a lifesaver, Hermione. You coming too?” he asked as he moved around the desk to fireplace that set behind it.

She walked over to stand beside him as he grabbed the pot of Floo Powder from the mantel. “Of course.”

*****

 

“Ready?” James asked from his spot in the driver’s seat of the tractor. 

Lily sat just behind him, clinging to one of the posts that held up the roof over the driver. Across from her on the other side, Aron did the same. “Ready.”

“Ready,” Aron repeated, tightening his grip around to post on his side. 

It had taken them a little while to figure out how to turn on the tractor, and to see if it had enough gas. Thankfully there was a little left in the tank. How far that would get them, she had no idea. She glanced back at the trailer that was attached to the tractor. There were a few farm tools within reach, which would hopefully work against the scarecrow if they needed to fight it since magic useless against it.

James turned the key and the engine started. The two lights above the driver flared to life. Lily tightened her grip on the post. 

“Here we go!” James shouted just before he pushed down on the gas. The tractor lurched forward with surprising speed toward the doors of the barn. Lily ducker her head as it crashed through them. She felt a piece of wood hit her back, but her tight grip on the post kept her in place.

She looked up, but was forced to squint as rain pelted against them. The roof of the tractor was not protecting them very well from the rain, which pounded against them from the right due to the blowing wind. Within minutes, she was soaked to the bone. The tractor bounced through the field, causing her but to lift from its seat. Across from her, she could see Aron having the same problem. There was no way she was risking pulling out her want to cast a spell to keep them dry. She did not need to lose her wand. James’s had already been snapped by the scarecrow.

“Any sign of it?” she yelled, looking up at James in the driver’s seat. 

She saw him shake his head, his wet hair flapping back and forth. “No! Any sign back there?”

Lily looked back at the trailer that was bouncing along behind the tractor. There was no sign of the scarecrow. She turned back towards James. “No sign of it!”

She hugged the post tighter as the tractor crossed the tree line and the bouncing got worse. She watched the trees flash by behind Aron, and a flash of something else. Lily sat up straighter, though kept a tight grip on the post. The thing was following them. But where was it?

Lily kept watching the trees that they drove past, but caught no other flash of it. And then came the thump from the trailer. She turned her head to fast, her wet hair slapped against her face so hard it stung. The scarecrow was crouched on the trailer, growling at her. It had dropped down from the trees above them. 

She was forced to release to post and leaned forward to grab one of the farm tools. Just as her hand wrapped around a hayfork, the scarecrows hand wrapped around her wrist. She screamed and swung her free hand at its face. It growled and fell back, but did not release her wrist and took her with it. She felt her feet leave the tractor and landed in the small trailer with the scarecrow. Lily swung at it again and caught its face. Still it hung on.

It tried to pull her off the trailer, but her feet found the front edge of it and clung to it. She groped around with her free hand, feeling desperately for something to grab that she could use to hit the scarecrow. After a few seconds, her hand wrapped around a brick. She grabbed it and threw it at the scarecrows face. It released her wrist and she pushed herself up off her chest and to her feet. 

As the trailer bounced again, she grabbed the hayfork and turned to face the scarecrow. It growled at her and she pushed the hayfork toward it. It missed. The trailer bounced again and Lily stumbled. The scarecrow lunged at her, but she got the hayfork up in time and stabbed its belly. It stumbled backward. She released the fork and turned back to the tractor.

“Release the trailer!” she yelled as she jumped from the trailer back onto the tractor. Aron grabbed her arm to make sure she didn’t fall. She heard James pull something and looked back to see the trailer come free. It rolled after them for a few seconds before stopping, the scarecrow still on it. She laughed and looked at James, who was turned in the seat and grinning at her.

“James!” Aron yelled. Lily looked at him and saw that his eyes were wide as he looked at something past James. James turned around and Lily looked past him to see a fallen tree was across the path. She watched as her brother slammed his foot on the breaks, but nothing happened. The tractor just kept speeding toward it. 

“Jump!” he yelled as he pushed himself from the driver’s seat. Lily jumped over the left side of the tractor. The impact of the ground knocked all air from her lungs. The trees were under her, the ground above as she tumbled. She finally landed on her back, her eyes landing on a bird nest up in the trees above her, before the world went dark.

*****

 

James groaned as he opened his eyes. How long he had been knocked out after jumping off the tractor, he had no idea. The rain had stopped, but drops were falling onto his face from the tree branches. He was sore all over from jumping off the tractor. He pushed himself up and looked toward a hissing sound coming from his right. He looked over to see the tractor. It had crashed into the fallen tree and sat there steaming. 

He pushed himself to his feet as he glanced around the trees near him. He had seen Lily and Aron jump off before he had done so himself. They had to be somewhere nearby. “Lily! Aron!”

He walked back along the path he had driven the tractor along, looking for some sign of his siblings through the trees. He climbed a small rise and stopped at the top, looking down. A few yards away, he spotted something red. He cupped his hands over his mouth. “LILY!”

He saw it move and a familiar face turn toward him as something cracked under his feet. He looked down to see that he was standing on a piece of wood that looked to have been placed over a hole, and the wood was rotted and falling apart. He had just the time to look up to see Lily coming toward him before it gave away beneath him.

With a yell, he fell through the whole and landed hard on his back. James groaned and looked up at the hole he had fallen through that was at least ten feet above him. He pushed himself up and looked around. It was too dark to see anything. James pushed himself to his feet and pulled out Albus’s wand and quickly lit the tip. The light revealed that he stood in a cave that was wide and narrow. To his left was a wall, but to his right it was lined with selves and then curved. 

James was not usually very cautious, instead liking to throw it to the wind, but after all that had happened so far that day, being cautious seemed like a good idea. He slowly approached the shelves. Some were covered with objects, that upon closer inspection turned out to be gold and jewels. Gold crowns and jewel hilted swords. Books covered in dust and ancient scrolls that looked like they would crumble if touched. A treasure trove.

Some of the other shelves held small, empty glass bottles that were corked at the top. There were more of them than treasure. James frowned and brought the glowing tip of his wand closer to one. Why would someone have a bunch of empty class bottles?

Then a small ball of glowing blue light appeared in the jar his wand was held up to. He back away a step as it began whispering in a foreign language. “What the?”

Once the one appear, glowing blue lights began to appear in other jars. Whispering in a different language, though a few were in English and James could make out one word from the babble; help. In under a minute, all the jars that had been empty contained a glowing blue light. James extinguished his wand, the lights illuminating the room far more than it.

He jumped at the sound of someone coming through the hole he had fallen through and turned to see Lily pushing herself up from the ground. She spotted him and ran to him, wrapping her arms around him tightly. “We saw you fall!”

James looked over her shoulder to see Aron drop into the cave as well. Lily pulled away slowly and James knew that she had spotted the glowing jars. “Merlin’s beard, what are they?”

“I don’t know,” he replied, watching her approach one of the shelves. Aron walked up beside her, looking at the jars carefully. “Aron, do you know what they are?”

Aron hesitantly picked one up, the light inside flaring at the touch The whispering of them increased in volume. His eyes widened suddenly and he gently placed it back on the shelf. “They’re souls. Someone is pulling souls away from the afterlife and sticking them in a glass jar.”

James looked around at all the glowing jars in the room. “These are all souls?”

He looked back at Aron to see him nod. “Yes,” he responded, looking pained at the truth they had discovered. 

“How do we send them back?” Lily asked.

James looked over at the jars on the shelf nearest to them. “Would just breaking them open work.”

“No,” Aron snapped. “I am one of them. My soul got drawn into your brother’s body. Imagine what would happen if these were released?”

“They would get stuck in people’s bodies just like you did,” Lily said. “But what can we do?”

Aron sighed, running a hand through Albus’s messy black hair. “A soul bridge would allow them to cross back, but I think that whatever brought these souls back is keeping them from finding it.”

“So, whoever brought you and all these souls back has also done something to keep them here?” James asked, gesturing to all the glowing jars in the cave around them. 

Aron nodded. “So it would seem.”

“But who would do something like that?” Lily asked.

A chill went down James spine as the sound of a voice reached his ears. He looked toward where the cave turned. “I think I know a way we can find out.”

*****

 

Around the curve was a large cavern lit by flaming torches that were attached to the walls. The tunnel looked down on it and the only way down was a rickety rope ladder that hung over the edge. The floor of the cavern was at least ten feet below them. Lily, James, and Aron crawled to the edge and looked down into the room. 

To the right, the wall was covered with shelves that were filled with boxes and books. To the left was a table covered in smaller objects that Lily could not make out due to the distance. In the center, a circle was painted onto the dirt with a star in the center of it. A small white rock was in the center of the star. 

“A pentagram,” Aron whispered beside her.

A figure stood before the pentagram, his back to them. He wore a heavy black robe and the hood was up. In his hands was a book and the words he heard were in a language that Lily had never heard before, but it caused the hair on the back of her next to stand up.

The second he stopped speaking, a glowing ball of light like the ones in the jars appeared within the pentagram. The voice of the soul sounded young, like a child. “Where am I?”

“Hello, young friend,” said the hooded figure. The voice was distinctly male and caused Lily to frown. It sounded familiar. 

“Where am I? I want to go home!” cried the soul. 

“I will help you find your way home,” the man replied. “But first I have a question for you. Do you remember the coat that your father gave you on your tenth birthday? ”

The child’s voice did not hesitate at all. “Yes.”

“It was hidden when the Swedes attacked your village. Do you know where your father hid it?” asked the man, following the ball of light as it hovered around him.

“It is hidden under the fireplace,” the child’s soul replied. “Can I go home now?”

“Of course,” the man replied, reaching a hand into his robe. “Come here, little one. I’ll help you home.”

The soul came to him as he pulled a glass jar from his robe. He held up a hand and the soul stopped moving. The child gasped. With a simple motion of his hand, the soul moved into the jar, which he closed with a cork. 

Lily swallowed, her heart pounding in her chest. He was bringing souls back to steal their treasures and then capturing them in the jars. The man walked over to the shelves, opened a cage that sat at eye level, and placed the jar into it. 

“That bastard,” James whispered as the man crossed the room to the table. 

“I do not understand,” Aron muttered as the man reached the table. “What does he want from me?”

The man grabbed something from the table and held it up before him. Lily squinted to see it. It looked like a glass tube with some sort of figure attached to the outside. It began to glow with white light and a humming noise filled the air. From the end of it, something emerged. A shadowy figure of a woman. And then the man turned and looked up at where they crouched at their perch. 

Lily gasped and pushed herself up. She could not see his face, but his eyes reflected the light as he looked up at them. “Aron Stover.”

“Time to go,” James said, pulling Lily away from the edge. Behind them, they heard the shadow creature shriek. 

They ran back through the cave, the whispering of the other souls louder than ever. Lily glanced over her shoulder as she ran to see the shadow creature fly into the tunnel after them. She turned around just as her foot caught on something. She began to fall, only for James to grab her hand and pull her along after him. She heard glass shatter and glanced back to see one of the shelves had fallen to the ground, the jars shattering. Balls of light flouted through the air, causing the shadow to stop. 

They ran until they were beneath the hole that they had come in through. James knelt down and put his hands out. “You first, Lils.”

She placed her foot in his hands and he lifted her back up to the hole. She grabbed the edges and pulled herself through. She crawled away and then turned around as James helped Aron up. She grabbed his hand and pulled as James hoisted him up. She saw her brother glance back though the tunnel. She reached down as far as she could without falling in. “Grab my hand!”

James jumped and grabbed her wrist. Her fingers wrapped around his and she gritted her teeth as pain ripped through her arm from the strain of holding his weight. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Aron come alongside her and grabbed James’s arm as well. Together they pulled. James yelled as the creature shrieked and his body vibrated as he kicked.

“Stop kicking!” she screamed at him as she grabbed his arm with both hands and pulled him further out of the hole. 

“The damn thing had my ankle!” he yelled back at her.

Once his hips were through the hole, his legs came easily. Lily collapsed back onto the dirt, panting. Her arms were shaking from the strain of pulling up James. But she could not lie there forever. She had to get up. They had to keep moving. She pushed herself up as saw James and Aron doing the same. “Losing a few pounds would not be a bad idea.”

James glanced back at the hole, through which they could still hear the creature. “How come it isn’t following.”

“The creature is made of darkness,” Aron replied. “If it comes out here, it will dissipate. It can only survive in the light.”

“Come on,” Lily said, tugging on her brother’s arm. They began running again. Where they were going, she had no idea. Just away from that cave. And they had no way of getting off the island. Her broom could not carry the three of them. As they ran through the forest, she spotted the glowing souls from the broken jars flying through the air around them. 

They ran through the forest, weaving through the trees. She stumbled a few times on roots and rocks that she could not see in the darkness, but Lily kept running. That is, until they heard voices. Familiar voices, yelling their names. Two female and one male. Lily glanced over at James, grinning. It sounded like Victoire. She was probably pissed, but Lily could not care. It was a way off the island. They spotted wand light ahead of them and three figures in the light. 

“Vic!” she yelled as they ran into a clearing in the woods. The figures had been searching all around them, but turned toward her at her yell.  
She could see the relief clear on her cousins faces. “There you are! We’ve been searching for hours,” she said. Then her eyes looked them over. “What happened?”

She, James, and Aron came to a stop before them. The search party was made up of Victoire, Dominique, and Louis. 

“We’ll explain back at the hotel, but right now we have to get out of here,” Lily replied as she pulled out her broom and her wand. She did the counter spell and the broom returned to full size. 

Victoire glanced at her siblings before pulling out her broom and unshrinking it. She noticed that James did not have his broom out. “Where’s your broom.”

He seemed to sag at the reminder of his broom. “Gone.”

Victoire looked at him for a second before nodding. “Right, your with me then.”

She extinguished her wand before mounting her broom. James climbed on behind her. Lily mounted her own and looked toward Aron as Dominique and Louis mounted their brooms. “Come on.”

As he climbed on behind her, she heard the crunch of leaves under someone’s foot behind her. She kicked off from the ground, causing Aron to yelp and quickly grab her waist and turned the broom to face the direction the sound had come from. The man stood there, watching them from under his hood. 

“Get off the ground,” she heard James mutter behind her. 

“Who the hell is that?” Dominique asked. Lily glanced over her shoulder to see that they were now off the ground, hovering several feet in the air as well.

She looked back toward the man as Aron asked, “How are you still alive? We killed you.”

The figure shifted. Out here in the dark forest, she could not see his eyes beneath the hood, but Lily had the strangest feeling that he was smiling. “You only killed my body. The moment before I died, I cast a spell that saved my soul. But I was too weak to take a random body, I needed a volunteer.”

Lily swallowed heavily and felt her stomach churn. Someone had agreed to let this man into their body. And from the way that Aron spoke to him, she had a feeling that this was the necromancer that had caused the death of the woman that Aron had loved. 

“As luck would have it, I found a scholar that who was prepared to host all the power and strength I could give him,” the man continued. 

“But he must be dead by now?” Aron asked from his place behind her.

“Every twenty-five years I must find a new host,” he replied and this time she could hear the smile in his voice. “Human beings, so greedy and ready to give themselves over for power.”

The leaves in the trees above him rustled and from them dropped the scarecrow, who landed beside him. “Time to go,” Lily said before turning her broom and flying upward through the trees. Once over the treetops, she glanced back to see the others following her on their brooms. 

She searched the dark horizon and spotted the mainland and angled the broom toward it. “That was him, wasn’t it? The man that killed her, Kara.”

She felt his arms shift around her waist and his chin on her shoulder. “Yes,” Aron replied. “That was him.”

She thought back to what he had told them the night before, about how he had wanted the Book. It had been split up between the surviving members of the Legion, which had included Aron. “He brought you back because he wants to Book.”

She heard Aron swallow. “Yes.”

Lily focused on the approaching mainland. They now knew who was pulling back souls and why, but how were they going to free them and allow them to move on? She felt Aron put his head against her shoulder blade. How were they going to get him out of Albus?


End file.
